Arguably the biggest problem with Steam is that there are so many games being released on the platform every day that it can be difficult to keep track of the new titles that are actually cool and interesting. Last year, Valve introduced a beta for a new feature called Personal Calendars, and it instantly became the coolest tool Steam had for narrowing down the new release list. Now, finally, it's out for real.
"With today's Steam update, the Personal Calendar feature officially graduates from Steam Labs and is considered a full feature of the Steam Store," Valve explains in its announcement.
The actual Personal Calendar page is pretty self-explanatory. You get a calendar showcasing the next eight weeks of games Valve's algorithms think you might be interested in. You can choose how many games appear in the calendar view, and choose particular genre and theme tags if you want to narrow things down even further.
Even when it was still in testing, I've found the Personal Calendar to be the cleanest and most concise way to check out impending releases on Steam. I tend to be imminently distrustful of algorithm-based recommendation engines, but whatever filters Valve is building under the hood do cut out a lot of the noise, and have correctly pegged me as the type of person to be interested in Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered and Stage Tour.
The recommendations are "based on games you play a lot," Valve says. "The system focuses on your playtime for games that you play the most. So, a few minutes trying out a new game or two won't have much impact on your recommendations, but sinking a bunch of time into a new favorite will."
The devs promise that there are no sponsored placements in the calendar, and they've done what they can to prevent you from "getting stuck in a filter bubble" where you're only recommended the same types of games over and over again. "It's unlikely that every day has a new game launching that is the same genre/theme as games you've been playing and is also a good recommendation for you," Valve explains, which helps keep the pool of genres appearing in your calendar more varied.
I'm often critical of Steam and Valve, in part because the platform's recommendation algorithms have often done little to clear the chaff from the wheat of new releases. (Steam's abysmal moderation history and wildly inconsistent enforcement of adult content policies are much broader issues.) But even I've got to admit that Valve's cooking with this one. Now excuse me, I've got to go audit my wishlist…
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